Odds & Ends: Part Five

For those new to these articles they are for highlighting odd photos, with a bit of history where appropriate, that don't fit in anywhere else and aren't enough for a post of their own. I've been meaning to add these first two for ages but kept forgetting; a bench seen on a walk stuck partway into a hedge on a country lane with beautiful teal blue peeling paint on a green background.

When I first got into urbexing it was the peeling paint artfully photographed by explorers that really grabbed me, reminding me of these two taken some years before. :) 

I was walking past this building in Newton Poppleford and took a quick photo with no particular intention of doing anything with it but just because I liked it. I know absolutely nothing about it but it looks fairly old, with its old beautifully faded orange bricks and consisting of two storeys with an opening on the first floor for loading and unloading goods. It may have had a winch above it. The roof is made of corrugated metal, which possibly substituted for a thatch at one time.

Another of those odd quick photos when walking past is this butcher's shop in Bridport, Dorset. I didn't know at the time that it's actually a Grade II Listed Building but it was the old tiles with the shop name that made me look and is the only photo I have of it.

Colourful painted bicycles used in a roundabout garden at Seaton sea front, looking gorgeous with baskets full of flowering plants. Seaton was host to a bicycle race at the time, which this commemorated. Sadly they're long gone and it's rather boring now but it was really lovely at the time.

These next few belong to a set of photos taken showing the rears of some buildings in Seaton.

They fascinate me as they are often quite different to the fronts of the buildings. I have ten of them, which I found whilst going through some photos, and scanned a few days ago. I won't add them all though, as I might take some more and write a proper article together with the frontages for comparison.

This building contains Lloyds Bank, which is about to close. I can't find any details about it so far but will try again for the article. I love seeing the difference between this attractive white facade at the rear and the more imposing front of the bank. The two small roofs at the right of it also look very different to the front. 

And speaking of rear views, I have two more taken at the back of Knowle House in Sidmouth. They were quick ones, of which I don't have any of the front. I always meant to go back for those but wasn't able to. Again, it's really interesting to see the parts that aren't often seen.

Some odd ones taken at various times of beach huts along West Walk in Seaton. I just find them interesting, especially those that are a bit worn and weatherbeaten. I did have several more but I can only find these three at the moment.

Another Seaton one is this photo of the Seaton Tramway, many years before it was demolished and rebuilt. As there were Victorian style lamposts outside I gave it an old-fashioned sepia look.

Then there are these ones, taken from Sidmouth of the MSC Napoli - a merchant carrier ship which foundered in Lyme Bay during a storm in January 2007. It was starting to break up so the men were winched off by helicopter and the ship towed towards Branscombe in Devon.

She was still five miles out when the oil began leaking so she was anchored and a huge boom was brought in to encircle the ship to prevent the oil from spreading and reaching the shore. 

Some of the huge containers were lost to sea and many others were washed up on the beach, 40 of them at Branscombe, plus some at Sidmouth and Seaton. Sadly, the news brought in scavengers from all over Britain, helping themselves to belongings from crates of people who were moving abroad plus merchandise, including a load of brand new motorcycles.

As it happens the salvaging rules are that anything taken has to be registered with the salvage officer. However, many did not. You can imagine tiny villages surrounded by narrow Devon lanes choc-a-bloc with cars & vans. One lovely story was that of a young man who'd found a beautiful tea set. Later, when he saw a news item of a woman upset about the loss of her household goods - especially that same tea set - he ascertained her details and sent it to her, which was really kind. 

I took the Napoli ones when at Sidmouth some time later with a friend. Even with a telephoto lens, it was difficult to get a really clear photo of it with the small boats continuing salvage operations. The photos aren't all that good and I never did anything with them so I finally decided to add them to the Odds & Ends collection.

Then to finish off with, three photos taken many years later of fishing boats and crab pots at the mouth of the River Sid at Sidmouth. And a seagull!* :)

 

*As the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) will tell you, Seagull isn't a correct name, as it is just Gull with the specific kind to begin with such as Herring Gull, etc. However, like many people, I've always called them seagulls and I prefer that to plain old gull, so I'm continuing to use it. :)

As always, I really enjoyed finding more of these odd photos and getting them into the light of day. Some were found amongst my collection of actual prints, which needed to be scanned, whereas others had already been scanned and were hiding in my pc photo folders. I've still got many more folders to look through and will be adding any I find to the next Odds & Ends.

Next up will be a surprise - mainly because I don't know myself yet! ;) Let's hope the weather gets warmer soon as I want to try getting out further afield and it's been extremely and unusually cold for the South-West recently.

Cheers, everyone. :) 

Fore Street, Beer, Devon - Part Two

 

This is the second part of Fore Street in the village of Beer. It's a village with the most amazing variety of architectural styles, many of which are late 19th and early 20th century Arts & Crafts buildings, along with the much older vernacular cottages and 19th century parish church.

Following from Part One - which can be seen here - the next one along on the west side is the Dolphin Hotel. 

The white building, seen below, is a wing of the Dolphin. What's interesting is the red telephone box bottom centre against the adjoining wall of the two buildings. Unfortunately I didn't get a clear photo of it, but it's a King George IV designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott in 1935, and is listed as Grade I.

The Dolphin itself is also a Listed Building, at Grade II, and is built in the same style as several other buildings, including Manor Cottages and the Town Hall, both in Seaton. I suspect that some or all of these may have been designed by David Carr, or at least influenced by his work. Many Beer buildings belonged to the Clinton Devon Estates that David worked for.

 

Flint rubble walls with painted quoins and window surrounds, the main part was built mid 19th century. The white wing was much earlier in the 17th century, later remodelled during the early 19th.

The next one along is a tiny cottage, called Haslemere, sandwiched between The Dolphin and the following adjoining building, below.

It's in a similar style with the alternate limestone brickwork around the door and windows, echoing the quoins of the buildings each side, along with the quirkiness of windows at different heights. As they are all of similar design I suspect they were built at the same time, either building on existing cottages or from scratch on an empty or demolished site.

I love this attractive wrought iron fence with its floral finials painted white, and which looks especially attractive with a background of bright tulips and other plants.

This one to the left is Jimmy Greens Clothing Store, an accessory outlet of the Chandlery business which supplies ropes and other accroutements for boats and yachts.

This has got to be one of the loveliest buildings I've ever seen, with its quirky, higgledy piggledy levels of roofs and windows and with such fabulous features as the ground floor shop windows. The window and door shapes within the pointed frontage gives it a somewhat organic feel, as if about to enter a limestone cave. 

That limestone frontage runs across the whole front, uniting the split roofs and ups and downs of the various door and window heights.

I wish now that I'd taken more photos of this, but I was so determined to get as many buildings as possible before the next bus home that I was a bit slap dash. If I take more on a future visit I'll add them to its own article.

And here are some details of the windows, below, with their fabulous leaded panels at the sides and headers.

After this there's a little lane between the buildings, followed by a pub called The Barrel of Beer. I don't have any photos of that one but the next one after it is the lovely little Old Lace Shop cottage.

A charming 17th century cottage, The Old Lace Shop isn't a listed building but it does have historical interest as well as this lovely frontage. Beer was one of the East Devon towns where the main occupation for women was lacemaking. It was in Beer that the lace for Queen Victoria's wedding dress was made and this shop may have been the outlet for their wares. The lace was sent to Honiton for dispatching due to the town being on the turnpike road to London, which is why it's sometimes referred to as Honiton Lace, even though it also came from Beer and Seaton plus other towns and villages along the coast.

It's so lovely and simple and the black and white decor makes it striking, with its plain plank door, attractive windows and sign above the door, which I think is probably a modern addition.

And below, a close up photo of the pretty stained glass pane above the front door.

Next along are a pair of cottages between the Old lace Shop and Beach Cottage.

I don't have a name for these and, like many of the others, it isn't on the Listed Buildings register. Again, there is the distinctive style that's common throughout many of these adjoined buildings.

Varied windows also adorn these two cottages, with Tudor style mullioned windows on each ground floor (seen above) and pointed and rectangular shaped gables above windows, seen below. There are also hanging tiles above the right one, which was quite popular with this style at the beginning of the 2oth century and which is lovely to see.

The adjoining building is Beach Cottage, which is part of the same elevation as Beach Court and continues the same style of flint rubble with limestone quoins and surrounds, along with the fabulous gables.

The same details of pointed and rectangular gables are also on this and Beach Court, but the door is within a recessed porch with glazed tiles partway up the walls.

And finally we come to Beach Court. I have an extended article with many more photos of it, which can also be seen here.

Built in 1903, it was originally called the Beach House Hotel. Now residential, it was split into separate flats and renamed Beach Court. Some of the ground floor flats can be seen at the side, below.

And finally, looking along to the opposite side of Fore Street, which we'll be starting in Part Three.

The very last one at the end, and partially around the corner, is another pub called The Anchor, which I don't have any photos for yet. As the rest are on the opposite side I'm going to leave it here. A little shorter than Part One, but I'll add more to it as and when I can take photos of the Anchor and the Barrel of Beer.

Next up is another article in the Odds & Ends series that I've been working on - if I can find another one or two items to go with those I already have, which I might have in my stack of older photos. Then there are several others that I've made a start on, so the jury's out which one of those gets finished first!

Meanwhile, the weather has been getting somewhat better with more sun and less rain, although it's still very cold. I'm leaving it for a while yet, but will hopefully start getting out a bit farther afield soon. 

Cheers everyone! :)